Except for marketing terminology, I don't think the shift is that seismic.<p>While one part of cloud computing is having on demand infrastructure, the other part is software: being able to utilize existing infrastructure in the most efficient way possible. To most startups, the hardware part is where the value is. For companies that can already afford a lot of hardware, the value is in the software.<p>To that end, Amazon has very good software which can quickly let a company change the dynamics of its infrastructure. Before, Amazon was trying to sell the whole package. Now they are willing to just sell the software it seems.